AMT 1965 Lincoln Continental Convertible

[radiohd10]

Just finished the AMT ‘65 Lincoln Continental. I hesitate to call this kit a dog because I got it looking decent in the end, but in terms of quality, it was probably the worst I’ve seen to date. With the exception of the dash, the detail was non-existent, and every surface of the body was totally uneven. If you want to build this one, make sure you have tons of sandpaper and plenty of styrene and aluminum for scratch building. Unless they issue a newly-tooled version, I won’t be building one of these again. 

Some tweaks -

interior:  wood grain, door panel, and armrest detail added.  Scratched some door posts to give the flat door panels some texture. Sanded the back of the seats down by almost 75% to get them looking normal and added trim. The dash was foiled and painted then finished with aftermarket instrument panels covered in UV resin.  Scratched a rear view mirror and borrowed a side mirror from the parts box because the kit didn’t come with either ??‍♂️ Used a photo etch brake pedal for the speaker between the back seats and added some 26 gauge wire for trim.  Also built some new sun visors.  The carpet is adhesive suede which I ran a lighter across to flatten.  I’ll be using this technique in the future as well because it looks really clean and in scale. 

engine: this engine was a joke. The few parts it did come with were often incorrect. Basically everything you see in the engine bay with the exception of the engine block, air filter, and battery had to be scratch built or altered.  I made some frame bars and will probably add them at some point (they’re drying on the bench) but the kit leaves very little room under the hood, so we’ll see.

body: all the chrome is BMF with the exception of the front and rear bumpers. The body scripts are foil under paint, and were honestly the one detail the kit did well.  

All paint was tamiya rattle cans - gloss black and clear for the body, semigloss and matte blacks for the interior.    

The plan was to use the classic Lincoln hubcaps, but apparently the guy who sold it to me as a “complete kit” on eBay wanted to keep them for himself (thus the obnoxious rims you see here - I lowered the ride height to accommodate).
He also removed (and kept) the sun visors from the windshield frame, breaking the frame off of the body in the process. He left that little tidbit out of the item description as well ??‍♂️ 

Anyway - here’s what 5 weeks of sanding flash and sinkholes looks like ??

[oldscool]

You made an outstanding model out of that old thing. The engine is beautiful. Those wheels don't look so bad on a car of that size. Oh yeah, nice interior as well.

[radiohd10]

11 minutes ago, oldscool said:

You made an outstanding model out of that old thing. The engine is beautiful. Those wheels don't look so bad on a car of that size. Oh yeah, nice interior as well.

haha - thanks. i’ve had those big old pegasus wheels for awhile now and this was the first car i’ve done where they didn’t look totally ridiculous so I figured why not ??‍♂️

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Ryan!

You certainly made the most of a kit that we rarely see finished to this level. Bravo!

CT

[cobraman]

That turned out quite nice ! Good job.

[Kah puts]

That looks marvelous. If you paint a big slab sided car black it better be straight, well I'm happy to report that you nailed it. To bad about those classic wheel covers, they would have looked just as good as those, if not better. Your interior is outstanding.

[charger74]

It looks very good 

[Oldcarfan27]

Car came out great! I can even see your reflection in the side panel. Tough to do on black paint. 

I even like the wheel treatment and I don't usually like big wheels.

[happy grumpy]

With a lot of work and talent, an old kit can turn out to be awesome. You certainly nailed that one. Really impressive ?

[Tonioseven]

Beautiful work on it!

[70 Sting]

Holy jumpin’ that’s a beautiful build! Your hard work paid off. I can’t believe you used BMF on that script… so well done. Which chrome paint did you use on the rims?

[David G.]

The end result is well worth all the work you put into it. Everything about it looks perfect.

David G.

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[BeakDoc]

You certainly squeezed a gorgeous model outta that lemon. The body work under the beautiful black paint job is spectacular. And the Pegasus rims don’t look too dang bad on that land yacht….

[Slotto]

Stunning build! Great detailing on the interior

[Bainford]

Cool old Lincoln. The engine looks the business, and your interior work really makes this thing look great. A very classy cruiser. I like!

[radiohd10]

13 hours ago, Claude Thibodeau said:

Hi Ryan!

You certainly made the most of a kit that we rarely see finished to this level. Bravo!

CT

 

13 hours ago, cobraman said:

That turned out quite nice ! Good job.

 

12 hours ago, Kah puts said:

That looks marvelous. If you paint a big slab sided car black it better be straight, well I'm happy to report that you nailed it. To bad about those classic wheel covers, they would have looked just as good as those, if not better. Your interior is outstanding.

 

12 hours ago, charger74 said:

It looks very good 

 

12 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Car came out great! I can even see your reflection in the side panel. Tough to do on black paint. 

I even like the wheel treatment and I don't usually like big wheels.

 

10 hours ago, happy grumpy said:

With a lot of work and talent, an old kit can turn out to be awesome. You certainly nailed that one. Really impressive ?

 

10 hours ago, Tonioseven said:

Beautiful work on it!

 

2 hours ago, David G. said:

The end result is well worth all the work you put into it. Everything about it looks perfect.

David G.

 

1 hour ago, ChrisR said:

Looks great!

 

1 hour ago, BeakDoc said:

You certainly squeezed a gorgeous model outta that lemon. The body work under the beautiful black paint job is spectacular. And the Pegasus rims don’t look too dang bad on that land yacht….

 

1 hour ago, Slotto said:

Stunning build! Great detailing on the interior

 

1 hour ago, Bainford said:

Cool old Lincoln. The engine looks the business, and your interior work really makes this thing look great. A very classy cruiser. I like!

thanks fellas!

2 hours ago, 70 Sting said:

Holy jumpin’ that’s a beautiful build! Your hard work paid off. I can’t believe you used BMF on that script… so well done. Which chrome paint did you use on the rims?

Thanks! The pegasus rims came chromed - i just hit them with some tamiya smoke and panel washed them.

[espo]

Considering all the grief this kit gave you the finished model turned out great looking. Very nice smooth black finish and the wheels and big brakes give it a current look. As I recall the engine in this kit was pretty much a lump of plastic and represented an engine only with a great deal of imagination. 

[radiohd10]

9 minutes ago, espo said:

Considering all the grief this kit gave you the finished model turned out great looking. Very nice smooth black finish and the wheels and big brakes give it a current look. As I recall the engine in this kit was pretty much a lump of plastic and represented an engine only with a great deal of imagination. 

thanks - yep the engine was just one piece with a hole cut through it for the front axle.  if the engine bay was accurately scaled, i could have added a bit more, but alas....

[espo]

Just now, radiohd10 said:

thanks - yep the engine was just one piece with a hole cut through it for the front axle.  if the engine bay was accurately scaled, i could have added a bit more, but alas....

Built one of these when they came out. This just what we had to work with at that time. Very impressed with your engine on this. 

[DanL]

nice build

[ATHU]

Looks amazing, well done!!

[thebavarian]

Great work, it´s an awesome car. 

[rsmodels]

Very nice looking Lincoln, Ryan. I love these old boats, had a couple back in the day (a  bit newer,  a 73 and a 77).

[Paul Payne]

I am particularly impressed by your work on the interior. The rest of the model is top notch as well!